“This all could have been avoided with one simple move,” Grant Stinchfield said, sparking outrage on social media.
A host on a conservative news outlet appeared to blame Tyre Nichols for the events that led to his death, saying that he should have complied with the officers accused of beating him.
Video footage released on Friday showed five Memphis police officers attacked Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, with their feet, fists and a baton after he was pulled over in a traffic stop on the night of January 7.
The footage shows that Nichols seemed confused about what he did wrong. Amid the chaos, he ran and he was eventually caught at an intersection a short distance from his mother’s house. Two officers were seen holding Nichols to the ground as a third appeared to kick him in the head. Then, another officer was seen striking Nichols repeatedly with a baton as another officer held him.
The officers then left him on the pavement, propped against a squad car and more than 20 minutes passed before any kind of medical attention was provided. Nichols died in hospital on January 10.
Grant Stinchfield, a host on conservative station Real America’s Voice, suggested that Nichols would have survived if he had complied with the officers.
“Here are some of the facts that people aren’t talking about—this all could have been avoided with one simple move,” he said.
